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Harvester
The Harvester is a demon wizard trickster that is infamous among the players for his special ability. He is the spouse of the Summoner and the last of the Black Magic Arcanists. Tactics and Behavior Like the Summoner, the Harvester is a levitating, thinly-built, purple-skinned demon. He is easily distinguished by a pair of large horns on the top of his head and a single, yellow eye. When dormant, however, all that is visible of the Harvester is a mere skeleton - only when alerted, his soul will come from the Spectral realm into his body, completing the incarnation. He is also invulnerable until he incarnates fully. Upon spotting the player, the Harvester will announce himself with a sinister laugh. The Harvester is one of the most dangerous enemies in Hunter's Moon for numerous reasons. The first thing that becomes apparent is his speed - just like the Summoner, the Harvester favors Spectral travel, allowing him to move around quickly while remaining safe from any kind of attack. Unlike his equally diabolical partner, however, a Spectral-travelling Harvester is almost invisible. He can mostly be heard then, emitting a jarring, droning noise. Being the only reliable cue towards his direction, you will need a good hearing sense to be able to estimate his destination. You can also visually track his position, but only in bright areas where his Spectral travel path visibly leaves a thin, white fog trail. Moreover, the Harvester's attacks are both lightning-fast and exceedingly devastating. His primary attack is a white-colored energy wave, which divides into three distinct bursts, dodging it is a highly difficult task even at the longer ranges. Going from bad to worse is the fact though, that this "trident" wave has a highly variable damage output. If all three bursts connect (what is possible at close range), the Harvester will take only about two shots to kill a freshly-spawned player. Like his spouse, the Harvester also fills the role of a debuffer. Therefore, being hit by any of the blasts - even from the splash damage - will make the Harvester "steal" a portion of the ammo of random weapons (even if you don't have them but have the ammo). The BFG Ammo will always be stolen, but Bullets and Shells will always remain intact. The worst however, is his alternate attack. In his case, he utilizes a "ghost hand" - a giant, disembodied phantom version of his arm that will home on you with high speed. Not only this hand can damage you badly (although it is considerably weaker and slower than the trident wave), but it can also steal your items! This sabotage attack can affect your inventory items (including the vehicle wireframes and the OEDB), as well as the non-physical resources: the Ultimate Fire Mode charge, the Ability charge, and even your Medals! The target item is somewhat randomized, but the hand will always steal your Life Binder and active powerups. The Ultimate and Ability charge pools as well as the Medal counts are practically guaranteed to be completely erased after a single grab. Seeing that most of the endangered items are hard to acquire, having them destroyed in a flash by this foe is a special kind of pain, and may cripple you for a long time afterwards, even if you will be able to overcome the Harvester. Not only the Harvester avoids harm very easily because he stays in the Spectral form most of the time, he himself is quite tough (even more than a Hellknight), taking more shots than the Summoner to discarnate (when this happens, the Harvester's body will be blasted backwards as it reverts back to the skeleton form, and then disappears, for good). Because of his tendency to go after your most valuable possessions, a Harvester encounter is the high time to deploy your biggest guns. BFG10k, Ultimate attacks (especially the Lightning Gun's Shocking Core works well), an offensive Ability, OEDB - anything goes. There is absolutely no overkill against this foe - it is better to engage your most powerful attacks on him than just wait for an unlucky trident wave or ghost hand hit and have it all vanish without even trying to make a use of them. Always look for cover and retreat routes, so you can negate the Harvester's mobility advantage and be ready to hide from the ghost hand. If it is possible, take peekshots with the Railgun (requiring about 5 hits to kill a Harvester) or the Grenade Launcher from a spot where he cannot follow you. If not, whip out the BFG10k, the Lightning Gun, or the Chaingun and hope that you kill him in time. The Nailgun may also be effective (about 4 good shots needed) if you are lucky, and you pin down the Harvester's location in time. Whatever you choose, however, the most important guideline is to not panic at any cost. You have to be aware of the Harvester's location at all times, as this demon likes to toy with you, and will try his best to blindside you. If you ever lose a sight of him, run into a narrow space to make him harder for him to attack from an unseen angle, or jump into a nearest teleport and prepare to reengage. You will need to retaliate hard and fast, so that he gets little chance to wipe your items (if not your life) from existence. Vehicle Tactics When mounted, the Harvester is not as dreadful to fight, since the vehicle armor withstands his attacks much better than a player on foot. However, he can still steal your stuff through the vehicle's shell, so do not try to feel too comfortable! Even when you are inside a vehicle, the Harvester needs to die fast - although the currently used vehicle cannot be stolen (thankfully), the rest of items are still at risk. The GEV Tank has a better chance at coming out unscathed from this confrontation, thanks to the Spherical Shield ability. The Shield is able to deflect the ghost hand, nullifying its threat (along with the Trident blast attack). This leaves the Harvester open to a counter-attack with the Main Cannon - just two direct hits and he will dematerialize for good. The Machine Gun is not recommended, as it takes a while to kill the Harvester, so you will likely need to reacquire the target after he escapes into the Spectral realm. The Cyclops does not have any way to protect against the ghost hand, so it will have to turn to the brute force to neutralize the threat as soon as possible. The best way to do that is the Heavy Gauss Cannons altfire: one good shot and the demonic cyclops will be put to rest in pieces. The Modulate Plasma Cannons are a decent option as well, needing about half a dozen solid shots. The melee attacks are an instant-kill: if the Harvester will be foolish enough to appear in the range of your legs, put them to a good use with a kick, gibbing the Harvester. Trivia #The Harvester does not exactly "steal" anything, because he cannot use anything that disappears from your inventory - the stuff just vanishes, and may be considered simply destroyed. #Unlike in Doom 4, in Hunter's Moon the Harvester does not employ lightning attacks nor can amplify his attack power in any way. He also does not possess any soul-related or accumulation abilites, despite his original name having been retained - instead, it was repurposed for the theme of "harvesting the player's resources". Category:Enemies Category:Demons